Page 87 of All You Need is Alien Love
At least she’s not injecting me with any unknown substances like last time.Not yet, anyway.
My mind flashes back to my last moment with River before I was transported away. A brief smile plays along my lips at the recollection of our Han Solo/Leia moment. At first, River was such a baffling mystery to me. I was drawn to his vibrant personality and mesmerized by this chatterbox tendencies. We were polar opposites in so many ways, yet no matter how much I resisted, I couldn’t stay away from him. The closer we became, the more I yearned for us to be together always. It took time, butI soon started to decipher the puzzle that is my mate. By now I am highly attuned to what River’s thinking and feeling most of the time—and about ninety percent of it is tied to some kind of sci-fi or pop culture frame of reference. That’s how he makes sense of the world. I think it’s incredibly cute and so very… him. I’m rather proud that I’m becoming quite fluent in the ways of my mate, especially after being made to watch so many of his favorite movies and television shows.
Damn and blast, but I miss him something fierce already. Being unable to do much of anything to help River directly at this moment has my tentacles gnashing their metaphorical teeth. Galactic gods, I can’t wait until this is all over and I can whisk him away on the intergalactic honeymoon of a lifetime. We’ll most certainly deserve it after we get through this.
Adeline is tapping away on her tablet with a frown when the lights on the ship suddenly flicker and go out. The ship’s computer system screens go next, followed by an ominous noise that screams some kind of catastrophic malfunction.
“What the hell is going on?” Adeline demands.
One of her two crew members hurries to a computer terminal just as the backup power kicks on. The ship’s AI voice intones over the speaker, “Operating system failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. Please, initiate reboot sequence.”
The technician on board starts tapping frantically at the screen, which suddenly goes an odd blue color.
The AI-generated voice comes over the speakers again. “The ship’s operating system has encountered an unknown error. Your ship operating system might be at risk. Please insert disk.”
“What disk?” The technician says, face full of confusion.
Adeline’s frowning fiercely now. “Fix it!” she demands, her voice cold and harsh.
The hapless technician tries again. “Let me perform a manual override,” he says with a nervous gulp.
The blue screen disappears for a moment only to be replaced by a red “Access Denied” message now flashing on all the screens around us.
Adeline strides over to the captain’s chair a short distance away, typing something on the main command keypad.
The emotionless AI voice comes over the speakers again. “Hyperdrive initiation module not found. Please insert plasma crystal and perform system sweep.”
“What the actual fuck?” Adeline says, as she continues to stab at the keypad.
“Warning. Quantum containment shields unstable. Hull breach risk elevated,” the AI voice interjects.
“Fix this or die,” she snarls at the poor tech, her phaser now trained on him.
“I… I don’t know what’s going on. Our ship’s OS has been compromised somehow.”
Her face turns red with fury. “Then find a way to get us up and running again.”
The tech raises his hands in submission. “Sorry, but this is beyond me. I think we’ve been hacked by a rather sophisticated virus that has infiltrated the entire OS. That’s not something I can easily remedy. It’s above my paygrade, that’s for sure.”
“Why am I surrounded by useless fools,” Adeline vents as she attacks her keypad again.
“You don’t have access to that folder,” the AI voice tells her.
“Ahhh!” Adeline screeches, starting to lose her cool.
The AI voice comes over the speakers again, unrelenting. “System trapped in hibernation mode. Timeout period expired.”
“Motherfucking piece of shit,” Adeline growls as she rage-stabs the keypad repeatedly with one finger.
“This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. All navigation systems now nonoperational.”
Nonoperationalis never a word you want to hear in relation to your ship.
For the first time since I’ve known her, Adeline pales, a frantic look twisting her face.
“Uh… captain? We c-can’t reach any of our sister vessels or our ship in orbit,” the technician interrupts, keeping a good physical distance from her.
Adeline stares at him like she’s contemplating the merits of murdering the poor guy.
